The House of Carlotte (formally named the House of Carlotte-Ostre de Hapsburg) is the original and reigning royal house of the Kingdom of Brazoria. It was formally established through election on 2 March 1836 by King John Charles I, though it traces lineage and claim to blood through paternal relation to John of Austria, who was the son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The paternal line of John Charles I was upheld continuously since John of Austria, and the House of Carlotte has kept a clear paternal line to John Charles I since its establishment alongside the Kingdom-on-the-Brazos.

Juan Carlos Domingo Pascual de Nobia was the head of the prestigious Carlotte family of the Intendancy of Texas during the outbreak of the Brazos Revolution in 1835. The Carlotte family, at that time the most powerful family in the region, was necessary to the survival of the revolution, and hence, Juan Carlos became heavily involved in the movement. When the revolutionaries met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to discuss the future of their fledgling movement, Stephen Austin, a close friend of Juan Carlos, vouched for the creation of a hereditary state to offset the tumultuous effects of republicanism and the mobocracy. Austin posited that if their movement was centered around a single apolitical, individual who was vested with the power of absolute reserve authority, then the "house would be as stable as the foundation". Austin's argument was supported by Garrett Hawke, an influential military figure in the early revolutionary army, and hence, with the creation of the Brazos Compact, Juan Carlos was donned, by election, as John Charles I, King-on-the-Brazos. Thereafter, the House of Carlotte was established through the prerogative of the compact.

The exact title claimed by the original inception of the House of Carlotte was that of "King-on-the-Brazos," which lasted until the Royal Decree of Parliament of 1848. There after, whence democracy was granted past the State Privy Council, the titled was formally changed through an act of parliament, specifically Crown Act, 1848, to "King of Brazoria", which then included all the lands held in sovereign trust of the crown on behalf of the nation, rather than existing simply as a title of gratitude from the ruling directorate of the nation. After a petition to Queen Isabel II of Spain, the lineage of the House of Carlotte was legitimised in 1849, due to the Queen's desire to build lasting alliances with those who saw her title as valid, in contrary to the opinions of the Carlists.

Officially sanctified in 1850 by Pope Pius IX soon after ligitmisation, the House of Carlotte was often subject to a great deal of criticism from elements within its realm for its open support of the Catholic Church. Hence, in 1877, the House of Carlotte broke away from the Catholic faith, establishing, in its place, the Church of Christ the King, a Christian church which incorporated a great deal of already existing Catholic churches across the realm. The head of the House of Carlotte, at that time King Pascal I, was thus made the Governor of the Church of Christ the King, the nominal, temporal leader of the Church. Thereafter, the House of Carlotte was granted the title of "Defender of the Faith".

The current head of the House of Carlotte is King John Charles II, who ascended the throne on 20 December 1993, the same year as the death of his father, King Phillip II.

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Family name

The name of the House of Carlotte is related to the parentage of the original founder of their branch, John of Austria. When the prince settled in New Spain, he gave the name of his homestead as Villa de Nobia, and thereafter, in accordance to traditional naming of families during the period in which he lived, his children were given the paternal surname de Nobia. It was not until the start of the Brazos Revolution that the prospective name of the family shift from the traditional de Nobia to Carlotte-Ostre de Hapsburg. After the Brazos Compact in 1836, this name was formally adopted for the ensuing royal family of the new kingdom. The hyphenate, Carlotte-Ostre is a reference to the lineage of John of Austria, who was a child of Charles V (Carlette to Carlotte) and who hailed his title from the country of Austria (Oesterreich to Ostre). The suffix de Hapsburg was added to claim a higher sense of nobility, a claim which was validated by legitimisation in 1849. Hence, the full name of the family is; the House of Carlotte-Ostre de Hapsburg. Often, in informal references, the family name is shortened to just Carlotte.

Ascension

Nobia

John of Austria, posthumously leigitmised, is the point of divergence from whom the Carlottes claim lineage to the Hapsburgs.

The Carlottes are descended by paternal lineage of Juan Carlos Domingo Pascual de Nobia to John of Austria, a bastard son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1571, under the advice of close friends and his wife, Zenobia Sarotosia, John of Austria came to New Spain to lead the settlement of fringe northern territories due to the growth of French Huguenot power in the Low Countries, where Zenobia feared that John risked certain death due to the increasingly demanding implications of his brother, Phillip II in regards to the military leadership of John. Hence, in 1572, John of Austria founded the small steading of Villa-de-Nobia, which he named after his wife. There in Villa-de-Nobia, John led the establishment of a thriving settlement which soon became one of the largest early settlements composed of non-clergy, non-military citizens in northeastern New Spain. John of Austria also oversaw the construction of the fort at Port Velasco, establishing a permanent Spanish presence in the region. John and Zenobia raised several children, the eldest of which, Carlos Domingo de Nobia, born in 1574, inherited his father's important position in the small sphere of regional aristocracy in early Texas. Carlos Domingo established a highly prosperous cattle trade, which soon became a major feature of cultural and economic significance in the region of Texas. In 1628, due to his part in the large development around Villa-de-Nobia and Port Velasco, Rodrigo Pacheco, 3rd Marquis of Cerralvo, the Viceroy of New Spain, granted Carlos Domingo the honorary titular post of Intendente Regional de Nobia, a title which would continue in the de Nobia family to the eldest son of Carlos Domingo, Felipe de Nobia, born in 1606, who inherited the the title in 1649. Following Felipe, there was Carlos Pascual de Nobia, born in 1644, who inherited the family titled in 1680. Carlos Pascual was notable for his desire of the rapid settlement of the region, even demanding the continued habitation of the mission at San Antonio in 1711. The eldest son of Carlos Pascual, Juan Felipe de Nobia, born in 1683, was the next to inherit the title, doing so in 1725.

It was during the patriarchy of Juan Felipe that the Lipan Apache fought vigorously against Spanish encroachment due to Spanish alliances with the rival Hasinai. In 1749, tensions with indigenous peoples further to the west were raised significantly when the Spanish agreed to a peace with the Lipan Apache. The Comanche, those western natives, then began large raids on Spanish frontier settlements, sacking and pillaging many small villages and solitary homesteads. A great deal of Spanish settlers fled to San Antonio, while many more fled to Villa-de-Nobia, dramatically increasing its size. When Juan Felipe died in 1760, Villa-de-Nobia had grown three times its size since the beginning of his patriarchy. As Juan Felipe's son Juan Carlos Domingo de Nobia had died of cholera in 1753, the title of Intendente Regional passed directly to Juan Felipe's grandson, the only child of Juan Carlos Domingo, Carlos Felipe de Nobia, who was born in 1740. Carlos Felipe served an important role in the creation of a peace treaty with the Comanche, which came to fruition in 1785. Thereafter, the de Nobia family was the single most powerful family in all of northeastern New Spain, due to the decades of protection which the de Nobias offered settlers for a small price. Hence, in 1787, after several requests made on behalf of the de Nobias, Viceroy Manuel Antonio Flores created the Intendancy of Texas and granted the full title of Intendente de Texas to Carlos Felipe. In 1790, native raids came to an end with Comanche assistance, and in 1793, the mission at San Antonio was secularised, both of which opened the Texan heartland to possible settlement to new prospectors from inside and outside of the Spanish Empire.

Texas

Carlos Felipe began a policy of attracting English-speaking, Protestant settlers to Texas through offering plots of his large estate in the areas surrounding Villa-de-Nobia. He also began formalising routes of travel between Villa-de-Nobia and the two other prominent settlements at the time, San Antonio and Nacogdoches, by constructing an offset route on the Camino Real. This opened the way for Anglo settlement around San Antonio and Nacogdoches as well. The relaxed immigration policies of Carlos Felipe were of no concern to the Spanish colonial authorities, who, instead, were more pressed with matters of state, after the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1803. Juan Domingo Pascual de Nobia, born in 1764, inherited the intendancy that same year, after the death of his father. Juan Domingo Pascual would continue the relaxed policies of his father, and in actuality, greatly expanded upon the policy after the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810. Juan Domingo Pascual feigned neutrality in the ongoing civil discord which was primarily located far to the south, though he privately favoured a Spanish victory he did not wish to forfeit his family's holdings in the event of a revolutionary victory. During the last phases of the war, with the signing of the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819, the remaining Spanish forces all but abandoned border postings, allowing for immigration in even larger numbers and paving the way for the system of the empresario in 1820. With the achievement of Mexican independence, the new Mexican authorities allowed the empresario system to continue, with the first such grant begin given by Juan Domingo Pascual to Moses Austin, whose son, Stephen Austin would end up fulfilling the contract. Stephen Austin and the son of Juan Domingo Pascual would become good friends during the Austins' dealings in Texas, and following the passage of the General Colonization Law, Stephen Austin would begin leading a massive amount of new settlers into Texas.

In an effort to better control the massive influx of new residents in Texas, Mexican authorities merged the intendancy into the new state of Coahuila y Tejas in 1824, a move which greatly angered the de Nobia family and worried many settlers as well, who feared a transition to a stricter central governance by unorganised Mexican authorities. Despite their loss of power, the de Nobia family would continue to spearhead the further settlement of Texas by English-speaking colonists, a duty which transitioned to Juan Carlos Domingo Pascual de Nobia, born in 1793, on the death of his father in 1829. When the Mexican President Anastasio Bustamante outlawed further immigration from the United States in 1830, tensions began to reach a boiling point. The de Nobia family, with the assistance of the empresarios, would continue to secretly smuggle in settlers and goods from the United States regardless of Mexican law, a point which lead to the Anahuac Disturbances in 1832 and became a prelude to outright rebellion against Mexican rule. Mexican troops fled Texas after the Nacogdoches Revolt that same year, and at the Convention of 1832, the settlers and the de Nobia family formally demanded statehood in Mexico. Stephen Austin was sent to Mexico City in 1833 to negotiate, where he would be arrested on charges of treason and imprisoned. The centralisation efforts of Antonio López de Santa Anna saw the end of efforts to negotiate and signaled the beginning of the Brazos Revolution in 1835, with the full support of Juan Carlos de Nobia and Stephen Austin. The small victory at Battle of Gonzales that October would provide a huge boost in morale for the Texan revolutionaries, emboldening the revolution and putting forth the idea to establish a new sovereign state for all free citizens of the region.

Brazos

On 1 March 1836, 45 delegates from the 21 municipalities in revolt gathered at Washington-on-the-Brazos to convene on the formalisation of the cause of the revolution and the goal of the forces in their struggle against the Mexican regime. At first, the delegates began to discuss the creation of a new Republic which would bare the name Texas and eventually make its way into the United States through admission as a state. While many delegates seemed attracted to this idea, Stephen Austin, after a long discussion with his friend Juan Carlos de Nobia, began to press for the cause of the de Nobia family and their contribution to the region. Stephen Austin spoke so passionately to the convention that many delegates began to seriously consider the possibility of creating a new monarchy, despite the fact that many of those same delegates represented the ideals of republicanism in the fact that they had been elected by the peoples of their municipalities. Nonetheless, Austin chided the rambunctious nature of republican revolutions, and pointed to historical examples of restoration as periods of great prosperity in history, most notably the English Restoration. Austin stated that states which combined the absolute nature of monarchy with the liberal election of representatives in democracy created a stable, balanced government which would rarely be subject to instability if both sides of the balance acted with modesty and restraint. Hence, Austin nominated Juan Carlos de Nobia to become the figurehead of their cause, to establish a Kingdom-on-the-Brazos. This motion was subject to fiery debate, but ultimately, the vouch in support of the well respected statesman Garrett Hawke won over the minds of those who would otherwise had disagreed on their own accord. Hence, the following day, 2 March 1836, the Brazos Compact was signed by the 45 delegates at the convention, officially declaring Juan Carlos Domingo Pascual de Nobia the King-on-the-Brazos as John Charles I and establishing the House of Carlotte-Ostre de Hapsburg.